Among relievers who never won the Cy Young Award include the great Mariano Rivera, Hall of Famers Hoyt WIlhelm and Goose Gossage and the two pitchers that blew away the all time saves records for a single season, Bobby Thigpen and Francisco Rodriguez. Of course, the Cy Young Award generally goes out to a dominant starting pitcher- with the tie between the dominant starter and dominant reliever going to the starter on every occasion. There is unlikely to be another Cy Young reliever. Sure, I am taking a chance at being wrong by saying that, but the configuration of the regular season awards has made it difficult for a reliever to be included. The "finalists," are announced shortly before the awards are announced and are described, in other words, "the three players who are allowed to win the award." Think about what the odds are that a player that is not a finalist is up against to have any shot of even getting third place. Narrowing the choices down to three leaves the possibility of a reliever being including pretty slim. Since the award now includes the finalists, there has not been a reliever nominated as a top three in either league. In fact, pitchers Craig Kimbrel of the Braves and Fernando Rodney of the Rays each finished 5th in their respective leagues in the 2012 voting. Kimbrel had as dominant season possible as a strikeout reliever, finishing with an ERA of 1.01 and Rodney had a season only duplicated by Cy Young Award winner Dennis Eckersley in 1992. It is impossible to top the seasons Kimbrel and Rodney had in 2012 so I think it puts in perspective the chances a reliever has of getting the award. Of course, the odds change if a relief pitcher is nominated as a finalist. But in order to do that, there has to be no more than two starting pitchers that are Cy Young worthy in a given season. If that is not the case, then how does a reliever even get to be a finalist? The days of a Cy Young reliever are becoming nonexistent. The first relief pitcher to win the Cy Young Award was Los Angeles Dodgers RHP Mike Marshall in 1974. Marshall had a relief season that will likely not be duplicated, especially with today's use of relief pitchers. He pitched in 106 games and had over 200 IP. Sparky Lyle won the AL Award in 1977 off the strength of 13 wins and 26 saves, while pitching well over 100 IP. HOF Bruce Sutter won the Award in 1979, but you can make a case that Joe Niekro and JR Richard had better seasons. In fact, Sutter did not finish with the most MVP points among pitchers in the NL that season. Another HOF RHP, Rollie Fingers won the AL Award in the strike shortened season of 1981. His numbers stood out more than that of a starting pitcher. Then, of course, there are Willie Hernandez of the 1984 Tigers, Steve Bedrosian of the 1987 Phillies, Mark Davis of the 1989 Padres, Eckersley in 1992 and Eric Gagne of the 2003 Dodgers. Among them, Fingers, Hernandez and Eckersley will hold the distinction of being the only relief pitchers to win both the Cy Young and MVP Award the same season. The reasons we may have seen the last relief pitcher win the Cy Young Award were stated before, hopefully I made them clear enough. The reason pitchers, mainly starting pitchers, have a chance to win a league's MVP Award is because the writers are not against putting them on the ballot, ala Clayton Kershaw in 2014. Making a pitcher a finalist for an MVP Award means the writers at least have to consider his legitimacy. The same thing that would happen if a relief pitcher is put up as a finalist to win a Cy Young. It is a shame because the importance of good relievers is at an all time high. Unfortunately, it is more important to have multiple very good relievers than just one great one. Teams are aware of that as well as the fact that it is just as important to get the ball to the closer as having a dominant one. Looking back at the past Cy relievers, all of them pitched multiple innings, something we will never see today. Even if we see a pitcher net 80 saves in a season, he is still unlikely to win a Cy Young Award.

From the years of 1965-1980, the Detroit Tigers had a left hand pitcher by the name of John Hiller who would rank among the most successful relievers in the history of the game by the time he retired. In addition to gaining the Tigers record for most games pitched, he also ranked 4th in the history in the American League with his 125 career saves. In today's standards, 125 saves can be accomplished in less than three seasons. However, only Sparky Lyle (231), Hoyt Wilhelm (154) and Rollie Fingers (136) had more saves in the 80 year history of the American League. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was signed by the Tigers as an amateur free agent in the 1962 season. He made his MLB debut in 1965, making 5 appearances and made another appearance for the team in 1966. He made his first impact in the 1967 season, seeing 23 games while making 6 starts finishing with a 4-3, 2.63 season with 3 saves. The following season, Hiller went 9-6, 2.39 in 39 games, 12 starts as the Tigers defeated the St Louis Cardinals in an exciting 7 game World Series. He became a constant in the Tigers bullpen in 1969 and 1970, averaging about 100 innings a season pitching predominantly out of the bullpen. It was January 11, 1971 when Hiller suffered his heart attack. While certainly a lot worse than the big time arm injuries we see on a daily basis in the game today, I am sure the Tigers viewed the loss as something they would have to be able to deal with. As expected, Hiller would miss the entire 1971 season and likely woud never pitch again. In fact, when Hiller returned to camp for the 1972 season, plans had already been made for Hiller to serve as a coach. He was a batting practice pitcher but found a little more zip on his fastball than expected and was miraculously back with the Tigers by July. He pitched to a 2.03 ERA with a 1-2 record and 3 saves. While he pitched in 24 games and made only 3 starts, his one win came in an important start against the Brewers. His 5-1 victory helped the Tigers capture the AL East title (in addition to the acquisitions of LHP Woody Fryman and C Duke Sims). He also threw 3 scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics in the 1972 ALCS. The following season saw Hiller take off. He was 10-5, setting an American League record with his 38 saves. He also led the AL in games pitched (65) and games finished (60). He also had 124 Ks in 125 1/3 IP, finishing in 4th place in both the AL Cy Young and AL MVP. His 1974 season, in my opinion, was even more impressive. Pitching solely as a reliever, he appeared in 59 games. He won 17 games, losing 14 and in doing so picking up an unheard of 31 decisions as a relief pitcher. He led the club with 13 saves, out of the 15 that were needed for the Tigers team. He also made his only All Star team that season. I think it is easy to overlook what Hiller was able to accomplish. In fact, it is easy to downplay his accomplishments as many of them are repeated on such a regular basis these days. But the man survived a heart attack and made a name for himself AFTER returning to the diamond. It would have been easy for Hiller to hang it up, with 23 wins, 19 losses and 13 career saves over parts of 6 seasons. Nobody would have thought bad about it, as surviving the heart attack by itself was successful enough. Instead, he returned for 9 more seasons and will forever be remembered as one of the most successful Tigers relief pitchers, along with Mike Hennemen, Todd Jones and Jose Valverde.

Today it was announced that longtime MLB catcher Ed "Hoggy" Herrmann passed away today at the age of 67 after a long battle with prostate cancer. Herrmann played parts of 11 seasons in the big leagues, with his best seasons with the Chicago White Sox from 1969-1974. While he put up some quality offensive numbers for the White Sox when he was their starting catcher, he was more known for his defensive prowess. Ed's grandfather, Marty Herrmann, pitched for the Brooklyn Robins in 1918. Ed was signed in 1964 as an amateur free agent by the Milwaukee Braves. The White Sox drafted him a couple months later in the first year player draft, where he would make his MLB debut in 1967. Once he returned to the big leagues in 1969, he became a fixture in the big leagues for the next ten years. A left hand hitting catcher, he hit .232, 8, 31 in 102 games in 1969, becoming the team's regular catcher through the 1974 season. 1970 was his best offensive season, where he hit .283, 19, 72 in 96 games for the White Sox. Herrmann was known, however, for his defense. On a White Sox pitching staff that included Wilbur Wood, Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher, he showed his ability to not only call the game, but to stand out as a receiver. One thing that all three pitchers had in common was the fact that they all threw the knuckleball. And I challenge you to name one catcher that was better at catching that pitch than Ed Herrmann. Wood, in particular, was a throwback in the sense that he was able to go out there on 2 or 3 days rest throughout the entire season. Particularly, in the 1972 and 1973 seasons, Wood made 49 and 48 starts, respectively. And to be able to do that, he needed to throw to somebody who could be trusted to catch the knuckleball. Herrmann caught all 49 of Wood's 1972 starts, a record for the most starts one battery made together since 1884 (52). Wood won 20 games for four straight seasons from 1971-1974, throwing almost exclusively to Herrmann. As a defender, Herrmann was among the tops in the AL leaderboard in regards to fielding percentage and threw out 33% of the baserunners trying to steal for his entire career. Later on, he was traded to the New York Yankees where he DHed a little bit and backed up Thurman Munson. He would catch Astros RHP Larry Dierker's no hitter on 7/9/76. He finished his career as future HOF catcher Gary Carter's backup in Montreal in 1978. I was lucky enough to get a brief chance to speak with Ed before he got sick in the summer time this year. Even through his toughest moments, he managed to stay in contact with me, and his wife had even said he would still like to do an interview when he was able to feel up to it. Doing the interview was not even important. This was a man who stood as strong as anybody could, facing such a horrible circumstance. If you can, take a moment to remember a very good MLB catcher, good man and one who always took time to mentor and teach young kids. Ed "Hoggy" Herrmann will be missed. A man who certainly was not afraid to teach others everything he knew, including the catchers he worked with during the last seasons of his MLB career. Rather than looking at this as a lost battle against a horrible disease, look Ed's fierce battle which was done with dignity. And that is a win. RIP

MLB stayed consistent through the 1960 season, with each league having 8 teams. Expansion first came in 1961, with the AL adding the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators (the original Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins and the later Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1972). The NL expanded in 1962, as the New York Mets and Houston Astros joined the NL. Both the AL and NL expanded by two for the 1969 season, as the AL added the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots (the Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers for the 1970 season) and the NL added the San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos. The AL would add the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays for the 1977 season. It wasn't until 1993 that the NL added two more teams: the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies. Both leagues concluded the expansion with the AL's Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the NL's Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998. Prior to the first game played by each of the new teams, a draft was held the year before for the new teams to attempt to put together a roster of players for the next season. The rules for the availability of players changed slightly from 1962 to 1998, but what was common was the opportunity for the new teams to decide which players they could use from the existing teams in MLB. Over a series of 14 posts, I will review the expansion drafts of each of these newer 14 teams. Included are trades made following the draft and which players were taken first overall. Without further due, here is a recap of the 1968 expansion draft for the Kansas City Royals. MLB had promised a new franchise to Kansas City after the Athletics left there after only being there for 13 seasons. Of course, to keep all AL teams playing at the same time, another expansion team was needed. Seattle was given a franchise called the Pilots. The NL chose to expand also, with San Diego getting a franchise and MLB expanding into Canada for the first time with the creation of the Montreal Expos. This draft added 30 players to each of the four new teams. Each of the expansion teams could only select players from teams in their own leagues. With each league presently having 10 teams, that meant there would be six rounds causing each team to lose exactly six players. Because the Royals were not able to come to an agreement with their a couple of their 1968 draft picks, the draft was changed to help them out a little bit. Normally, the team that has the first overall selection, concedes the first selection of the second and third rounds, with the final rounds alternating between team. Though this was true in this case, the Royals were given the second and third selections of the 2nd and 3rd round of the expansion draft. This allowed Seattle to have consecutive picks of 2nd and 3rd overall in the first round. The Royals selected Baltimore Orioles RHP Roger Nelson with the first overall pick in the 1968 expansion draft. The Royals then selected Boston Red Sox 3B Joe Foy with the 4th overall selection, then followed that up with New York Yankees LHP Jim Rooker (6th). Their last two first round selections were Oakland Athletics OF Joe Keough (8th) and Washington Senators LHP Steve Jones (10th). The Royals' first selection of the 2nd round was Detroit Tiger LHP Jon Warden (12th), who would never pitch in the majors again. They followed that up with Yankees catcher Ellie Rodriguez (15th). They then selected Minnesota Twins OF Bob Oliver (19th). The Royals took Tigers LHP Bill Butler with their first selection of the 3rd round (22nd). In the 3rd round, the Royals added OF Steve Whitaker (23rd) from the Yankees and RHP Wally Bunker from the Baltimore Orioles (25th). The Royals opened up the 4th round by taking Tigers RHP Dick Drago (guest on the Passed Ball Show) (31st). They also took Twins OF Pat Kelly in the same round (34th). The Royals opened up the 5th round by taking pitchers Al Fitzmorris (40th) from the Chicago White Sox and Moe Drabowsky from the Orioles (42nd). They took SS Jackie Hernandez from the Twins (45th) and RHP Hoyt Wilhelm from the White Sox (49th). The last round netted them 2B Jerry Adair from the White Sox (51st) and catcher Fran Healy from the Cleveland Indians with the 53rd overall pick. The following is the Kansas City Royals entire 1968 expansion draft: PlayerFormer TeamPick(1)Roger Nelson[1]Baltimore Orioles1stJoe FoyBoston Red Sox4thJim RookerNew York Yankees6thJoe KeoughOakland A’s8thSteve JonesWashington Senators10th(2)Jon WardenDetroit Tigers12thEllie RodríguezNew York Yankees13thDave MoreheadBoston Red Sox15thMike FioreBaltimore Orioles17thBob OliverMinnesota Twins19th(3)Bill ButlerDetroit Tigers22ndSteve WhitakerNew York Yankees23rdWally Bunker[2]Baltimore Orioles25thPaul Schaal[3]California Angels27thDan HaynesChicago White Sox29th(4)Dick Drago[4]Detroit Tigers31stPat KellyMinnesota Twins34thBilly HarrisCleveland Indians36thDon O'RileyOakland A’s38thAl FitzmorrisChicago White Sox40th(5)Moe DrabowskyBaltimore Orioles42ndJackie HernándezMinnesota Twins43rdMike HedlundCleveland Indians45thTom BurgmeierCalifornia Angels47thHoyt Wilhelm[5]Chicago White Sox49th(6)Jerry AdairBoston Red Sox51stJerry CramMinnesota Twins54thFran HealyCleveland Indians56thScott NortheyChicago White Sox58thIke BrookensWashington Senators60th The Royals purchased RHP Galen Cisco from the Red Sox and traded Wilhelm to the Angels for Ed Kirkpatrick and Dennis Paepke. They finished off their opening day roster by purchasing Dennis Ribant from the Tigers and acquired OF Lou Piniella from the other expansion team in the AL, the Seattle Pilots. Their opening day lineup in their first game, which they won 4-3 against the Twins was:Lou Piniella CFJerry Adair 2BEd Kirkpatrick LFJoe Foy 3BChuck Harrison 1BBob Oliver RFEllie Rodriguez CJackie Hernandez SSWillie Bunker P In the newly former AL West, the Royals finished with a record of 69-93 under new manager Joe Gordon. That was, however, good enough for 4th place in the division, ahead of the White Sox (68-94) and the Pilots (64-98).